We Found Each Other In the Dark
by themusicfiend
Summary: Katie Bell has never been able to forgive Draco Malfoy for trying to kill her at Hogwarts. So when he turns up at the Order Headquarters she is justifiably angry. But they are thrown together in an unexpected way and Katie begins to learn that it's very difficult to refuse to forgive someone forever...


Draco Malfoy has joined the Order. This is the news that greets Katie when she returns to 12 Grimmauld Place after a long day. Draco Malfoy. _The Order_. What the hell has happened to the world?

"They've all gone insane," Ginny confirms, glancing back at the open kitchen door. "He's in there, charming them all."

"I could have sworn he was a Death Eater," Katie says slowly, setting down her bag in the hallway. "Has he Imperiused them all?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Ginny sighs. "Are you going to go in?"

That is a good question. Katie isn't so sure she can face her would-be murderer, here, in her home. The very thought of him being so nearby makes her curse-scarred hands ache with freezing fire. How can he just be here, in Headquarters?

But her curiosity gets the better of her and she follows Ginny down the hall into the kitchen. It seems as if the whole Order is crammed into the room, gathered round Draco Malfoy. She and Ginny slip into the room behind Hannah Abbot and Seamus Finnigan. The crowd appears to be held captive by Malfoy…

"-so I had to get rid of my Dark Mark so he couldn't track me," he is saying; beside him, Kingsley Shacklebolt is nodding along as though he is in agreement. "Dumbledore made his plan completely airtight."

Everyone in the room looks pretty positive about the situation, like he's revealing some sort of great truth… what is going on? Katie taps Hannah on the shoulder and asks her in a whisper to explain.

"Dumbledore apparently knew You Know Who had sent Draco to kill him, so he helped Draco pretend to do it all year," Hannah explains. "Apparently there's some grand plan for Harry to defeat You Know Who where it's vital that Professor Snape killed Dumbledore instead of Draco."

"What?" Katie is utterly confused. Why would Dumbledore want to be killed? "And everyone is believing this?" she adds incredulously.

She cannot quite believe that everyone is going along with this. But Hannah shushes her as Remus Lupin leans forward to ask Malfoy a question.

"So Dumbledore wanted you to spy for us right under You Know Who's nose?" he asks.

"Poor choice of phrase there," Malfoy smirks, referencing Voldemort's lack of nose, "but yes, he thought I'd be the least suspected person since the Death Eaters would never believe I'd side with Potter."

"Ah," nods Mr Weasley, absentmindedly cleaning his glasses. "It seems we underestimated Albus' plans once again."

"Well that's all good and lovely," Ginny interrupts loudly, drawing everyone's attention. "But if you were only pretending to kill Dumbledore what's up with that cursed necklace and poisoned oak mead?"

A couple of people nod in agreement with Ginny's question, turning to Malfoy to hear him try and explain this one. Malfoy however flicks his grey eyes up to Katie and regards her for a moment. Katie feels sick; she hates Ginny in this moment for drawing attention to the. But she can't look away, and in the end it is Malfoy who breaks their locked gazes.

"My father believed I was trying to kill Dumbledore so he kept sending me things that would help," he says coolly, now addressing Ginny. "He didn't think I was doing very well you see. So I had included a note warning Dumbledore of the necklace in the parcel. I had to make sure the right story got back to You Know Who, which is why I used the Imperius curse on Madam Rosmerta. The rest was a completely unintentional accident."

"Why didn't anyone find the note then?" Ginny demands.

"It fell out of the package when Katie opened it," Malfoy explains, his eyes darting back to Katie apologetically. "The whole thing was an accident. And Dumbledore knew about the oak mead; I warned him in advance I could hardly control Slughorn's greed in keeping it. I never intended for anyone to get hurt, they were horrible accidents."

He sounds truly apologetic and most of the Order members murmur in sympathy, imagining how hard it must be to lead such an enforced double life. But Katie is shaking with suppressed fury and emotion. How can he be so casual in his explanation? He didn't lose four months of his life in a hospital bed, he doesn't have curse scars running up his arms in angry lines. He doesn't have to shrink away from winter snow as painful memories return with force.

There is no way he is telling the truth. He's a Death Eater, through and through, and he tried to kill her. Why is everyone believing him?

"How do you know you can trust him?" she asks the room at large, staring at Kingsley in a wild hope that they don't believe Malfoy at all.

"We gave him Veritaserum, Katie," Kingsley says in his deep reassuring voice.

"Are you sure? What's if it's not working?" Katie is aware of how mad she sounds.

"I brewed it myself," Lupin interjected. "We know it's working, Mr Malfoy is telling the truth."

All through this exchange, Malfoy's grey eyes have not left Katie, just watching her as she has a rather public freak out. And as he looks at her, Katie remembers the blinding, screaming pain of touching the necklace. She remembers being flung high into the air and ripped at by the icy hands of its curse, and she cannot stay here any longer. She turns and fumbles for the door handle, tearing out into the darkened hallway, shaking and trembling.

She presses her face into the dark wood panelling and breathes deeply until her heart rate returns to normal. How can she cope with him here, every day, reminding her of the horror of last year?

Draco Malfoy frowns as he watches her go. She went as white as a sheet and he is worried. It has been a long time since he has seen Katie like this and as the door slams shut behind her, he remembers the first time he really ever talked to her…

_The cool dark corridor is a blessed respite from the noise of the Slytherin common room. All he wanted was to be able to get some studying done for his OWLs, and he's been driven out into the castle hallways past curfew. The library's well out of bounds because of all Madam Pince's protective enchantments to prevent students sneaking into the restricted section, so he's left roaming the halls trying to find an empty classroom to work in._

_He's just walking along a fourth floor corridor, hoping the Charms classroom will be empty, when he hears it. The sound of someone crying. A female someone. Now as a Slytherin he's been trained out of even having emotions, much less tolerating them, but against his better judgement he finds himself approaching the source of the noise…._

_Round the corner, in the window arch he sees a girl; one of the Gryffindor chasers no less. This is where he begins to doubt himself; he has never had a single conversation with her (unless you count insult throwing before and during Quidditch matches), so why did he think it was a good idea to approach her? He's about to hurry back down the corridor when she looks up at him._

_ "What do you want?" her every word is dripping with loathing._

_ "I um, I heard you crying and I wanted to see if you were alright," he says hesitantly. Damn he is terrible at this; sixteen years old and this is the first time he's ever had to be sympathetic. It's not going so well._

_ "Why?" she looks frankly astonished._

_It makes sense he supposes; there have been nothing but insults traded between the two and their respective teams, so why would he be nice? He is a little confused by the answer he finds inside himself._

_ "Because I care."_

_ "You care?" she sounds confused, or dismayed perhaps._

_ "Um yeah," he fumbles slightly. You smooth git, he thinks sarcastically. "So are you okay?"_

_She sighs and moves up on the window seat so that he can sit down next to her._

_ "Not really."_

_And she tells him about the secret alcohol-fuelled gatherings that have been happening all year; how most of the sixth and seventh years are right now gathered in the Room of Requirement playing some strange muggle drinking game. And she doesn't want to be there. It transpires that tonight's particular party and the horrible behaviour of the Weasley twins is why she is out here, in tears._

_ "They were mocking me for not drinking," she says sadly. "I thought they were my friends. And Fred, I expected more of him."_

_He remembers, vaguely, her hanging around with one of the twins earlier in the year in a sort of smitten way. He supposes that must be Fred._

_ "Why did you go then?" he asks. "If you didn't want to drink it seems weird."_

_She sighs._

_ "All my friends go to them. If I didn't, I wouldn't have any friends."_

_ "They don't really seem like friends to me," he points out – although admittedly his Slytherin friends would probably do the same, given the chance._

_ "No," she agrees. "But they're pretty much all I've got right now."_

_This quiet conversation in the dark corridor stays with him for some time; he returns to it on occasion when his Slytherin friends are being ridiculous and he wants some peace. On that window seat on a draughty April night, an unexpected friendship tentatively puts down roots._


End file.
